Thursday, July 19, 2007

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on Wednesday it cannot support a U.S. Senate bill to cut college student lender subsidies by $18 billion and boost student grants, but it will work with Congress on the issue.

As the Senate neared a vote on its version of legislation passed in the House of Representatives, the White House said it "cannot support Senate passage of (the bill) in its current form because of serious concerns with some provisions."

While the administration claims it would veto the bill because not enough additional money would be in the form of grants that would not require repayment, the real reason is...

The House last week passed a bill that would cut subsidies to lenders -- such as Sallie Mae, Citigroup and Bank of America -- by $19 billion and boost grants.

(emphasis added)

Citibank is a key player here, so far as Bush is concerned. A major shareholder for Citibank is Al-Awaleed bin Talal. Tangentially, the current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz, was Executive Vice President & Head of Global Private Banking.

"Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. What did Conservatives do? They opposed them on every one of those things...every one! So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, 'Liberal,' as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won't work, Senator, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor." -- Matt Santos, The West Wing